Events Management has burst on the academic sector and applied fields in the last 30 years as an independent and extremely important industry. It’s getting stronger as an academic field as well as a major element of tourism development and in the past years it turned out to be one of the most important avenues for engaging of business whether in the Medical & Non-Medical Communities.
Events and conferences were in huge danger to the level of extension after the hit of COVID-19. Event organizers, venues, agencies, and marketing organizations faced new demands and requests from their clients. And since then, new normal templates have emerged out of the blue. Virtual, Hybrid and In-person templates are invading the events world.
And since the Events Management considered as a continuously developing industry, and flexible in acclimating to new trends emerging each year and for the time being; researches validated that events industry will continue to grow in the future and especially the hybrid set-up of meetings and conferences. In fact, 73% of event planners now think hybrid events will continue to be more common in the future while those who think this is just a temporary trend are almost 6% only!
With the rise of digital opportunities, including artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, 3D printing, wearables, and telemedicine, events are having a huge shift towards the digital world, especially after the world getting used to the virtual and hybrid templates due to the hit the pandemic. The effects of that hit on businesses worldwide have been dramatic and a whole new activity had to be arranged quickly and most have been obliged to alter, postpone or change planned activities and events. Yet the future is predicted to be bright for the Event Management Pioneers in the years to come.
Events Management Companies sees that:
“We’ve been through a lot, and it’s not yet 100% clear what the future holds. But in general, we think Event Managers will need to have a better grasp of technology and event platforms”.
Hybrid Events on the Rise
with regards to the medical communities, research proved that 86% of doctors use smartphones for work and 53% use a tablet and when doctors were asked about the impact of online interactive medical conferences on their ability to access knowledge, over 54% saw a positive impact! This percentage kept increasing within people getting adapting to a “new” normality in behaviors following up the pandemic experience. The overall virtual event market is predicted to grow from $14 billion in 2018 to $18 billion in 2023. These numbers are obviously saying that the future of events will be online in any formats either virtual or hybrid.
Researches shows that the pandemic accelerated something that was already moving forward. As physicians now demanding content in a format and at a time that is convenient to them and more comfortable to access anytime. Healthcare educational providers must adapt to this new reality and conferences must change their structure to survive.
We foresee that in the future only who will succeed will be those who embraces this new circumstance, and adapt earlier and smarter.